Two Poems to Start the New Year

The 2025 New Year's Eve numerals are displayed in Times Square in New York on Dec. 18, 2024. AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

Are New Year’s resolutions useless or meaningful? Here are opposing views in verse.

These poems are in the form of a villanelle. The villanelle is a French and Italian form of poetry dating back about 500 years, and it features two repeating lines that come together in the final stanza.

‘New Year’s Resolution’

A villanelle

By David Whippman

And what have you resolved for the new year? I guarantee your vows will be in vain. Oh, I don’t doubt that right now you’re sincere.

But soon, your good intentions disappear. Just as it’s happened time and time again. So what have you resolved for the new year?

Right now, your willpower’s shining bright and clear. But soon it will be flowing down the drain though I don’t doubt that right now you’re sincere.

But it will be so hard to persevere. You will be tempted till you’re half insane. Now what have you resolved for the new year?

For all too soon, temptation will be here. Poor fool! Your will could never stand the strain though I don’t doubt that right now you’re sincere.

A brand-new start? Forgive me if I sneer. Your high ideas? Already on the wane. But what have you resolved for the new year? Oh, I don’t doubt that right now you’re sincere.

David Whippman is a British poet, now retired after a career in healthcare. Over the years he’s had quite a few poems, articles and short stories published in various magazines.

Fireworks on New Year's Eve in London. Basrizal Abdullah/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

‘New Year’s Resolution’

A villanelle

By Evan Mantyk

The New Year brings with it a gleaming hope That lights the way into a better place; But first, with faith you have to grasp the rope

And climb up days’ and months’ increasing slope While sticking to a steady long-term pace— The New Year brings with it a gleaming hope.

Be clear and focused like a telescope That sees what’s true within a grander space; But first, with faith you have to grasp the rope.

In times like these it can be hard to cope With little daily challenges we face. The New Year brings with it a gleaming hope.

Imagine Martin Luther were made pope, And wretched debts were now transformed by grace; But first, with faith you have to grasp the rope

The Creator has scrubbed clean with rose-tinged soap And made for hands to perfectly embrace. The New Year brings with it a gleaming hope, But first, with faith you have to grasp the rope.

Evan Mantyk teaches literature and history in New York and is Editor of the Society of Classical Poets. His most recent books of poetry are Heroes of the East and West, and a translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. 

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